An Interview with Simone Elkeles, Author of How to Ruin a Summer Vacation

In How to Ruin a Summer Vacation, the first novel by Simone Elkeles, 16-year-old American teenager Amy takes an unexpected trip to Israel when her grandmother becomes ill. She didn't know her grandmother and barely knew her father, much less their culture and religion. Amy's story continues in How to Ruin my Teenage Life, which was released this year. Like its predecessor, Life mixes the funny with the serious. More serious is Elkeles' other 2007 release, Leaving Paradise, which deals with the aftermath of a hit-and-run car accident. A girl is critically injured by a boy her age - someone she knows, in fact - and their lives are forever changed.

Before diving into the deep waters of the interview, I dipped my toe in the shallow end of the pool and asked Simone how to pronounce her last name. "Elka-less," she replied, "I always tell people it's not Elka-more, it's Elka-less." I think I heard a little bit of Amy in that, so we went right into:

What do you think are some common misconceptions that today's teens have about Israel? What do you hope they learn from reading your books?

Gosh, there's so much about Israel and Israelis I want people to know. What you see on television news channels is just one little part of Israel. If the news channels only showed to the world the south side of Chicago, you'd get a very skewed view of what Chicago is. In my book, I wanted to show the parts of Israel people might not know about (and in a hilarious way). Teens live pretty normal lives there. (Until they turn eighteen and have to serve in the military -- which, incidentally, they are proud and happy to do.)

Were any of the events or characters in How to Ruin a Summer Vacation inspired by your own family members?

Absolutely! My father was Israeli and my husband is Israeli, so I have a lot of family members in Israel who I've spent summers with. The family members in How to Ruin a Summer Vacation are caricatures of people I know, mostly family members. I must say that I do have a cousin named Osnat, but the character in my book does not resemble her at all. My husband had a friend Oded who was dating a girl named Osnat, so that gave me the idea to put them together in my book.